Inside Auschwitz

Inside Auschwitz by Danny Ghitis

Residents say Oświȩcim is a perfectly normal place. But outsiders see only the concentration camps and wonder why anyone lives there at all

Every year more than a million tourists visit Auschwitz and Birkenau to pay respect to the innocent men, women and children who were murdered there. Because they come and go on the same day, most aren’t aware that Auschwitz is located in the old Polish town of Oświȩcim.

The atrocities of the Nazis stand for the ultimate bad and atrocities draw attention.

Danny Ghitis, in whose photos of Oświȩcim I wish to get you interested in, was intrigued by Oświȩcim. To him, Poland represented the epicenter of the Holocaust. It was once the hub of Jewish life and learning in Europe, but its population was reduced to ashes during WWII. To Jews, most Polish history ended after the war. But to Poles, life has carried on. Ghitis wanted to see how.